I've been lurking around for a while now, and thought I'd finally register. My son is going into Boy Scouts soon, so I've been in a gear refresh mode. I've seen most of the homemade designs and have build a few with good success. I've got a couple of ideas that are in the R&D stages and are still evaluating to see if they'll be pratical.

There's a lot of good ideas here, and hopefully I'll be able to learn & contribute a little.

Hi Zelph.As I mentioned in my post to Skids, I'm a transplanted Cajun, so I not "entirely" engulped (sp?) in the food culture here. I do, however, enjoy the cuisine here better than most places. My in-laws are the ones who can really cook. I'm really more of a gear-gaget head and am slowly being converted into a stove head.

Question: Been working on a stove. Initial tests are showing 8 oz water coming to a boil in approx 9:30 min. on 1/3 oz denatured, burn continues to about 10:30.I know it's not fast. What other stove designs are geared towards a minimal fuel, 1 cup burn? Is there a performance chart anywhere?

CajunHiker wrote:Hi Zelph.As I mentioned in my post to Skids, I'm a transplanted Cajun, so I not "entirely" engulped (sp?) in the food culture here. I do, however, enjoy the cuisine here better than most places. My in-laws are the ones who can really cook. I'm really more of a gear-gaget head and am slowly being converted into a stove head.

Question: Been working on a stove. Initial tests are showing 8 oz water coming to a boil in approx 9:30 min. on 1/3 oz denatured, burn continues to about 10:30.I know it's not fast. What other stove designs are geared towards a minimal fuel, 1 cup burn? Is there a performance chart anywhere?

The PMS made by Skids, lipstick burner by oops56, ion by sgt rock, the moonlite by ridgerunner, and others that will be listed by members.Almost forgot, the StarLyte. Any small burner will do. Just put in the 1/3 cup fuel.

Your stove seems to be doing just fine. If you want it to be faster there are ways. Let us know how big your burner/stove is in diameter and height. Give us as much info on your stove that you can. Aphoto will help.

We have no charts of any kind yet but sounds like a good project to put together.

Here's the deal. I was impressed by the seemingly stronger structure of the aluminum beer bottle stove, so I made one.It was some time later I started looking at what else I could do with the same bottle. So, without further a due, may I introduce...The Bottle Neck Cap (BNC) Stove. I made it from the neck of the aluminum bottle and two bottle caps. 1)Take the leftover neck piece and fit it tightly with a cap. Make sure it doesn't leak, as this will be the base of the stove. 2)Take a second bottle cap, remove the gasket, and use a drill or push pin to place a single hole in the center. If you use a push pin, push from "inside" side of cap to "outside".3)With the first bottle cap turned downward and the open portion of the neck upwards, place the second bottle cap upside down in the neck of the bottle.4)Depending on how much neck material extends past the second cap, you may wish to trim it down (I'm still playing with this variable).

Place in a primer dish (just in case the bottom gasket starts to leak!).Fill with approx 1/3 oz denatured alcohol, couple drops of primer. Light.

My original second cap did not have a fueling hole. Here, fuel was placed in the neck first, and then the second cap was gently placed in the neck.

The ridges of the second bottle cap act as jets as the stove comes up to tempurature. Which leads to another problem I'm having, in that after initial lighting, the stove tends to die down about 1:30 into the burn. Sometimes it comes back by itself, other times it requires a bit of a "tap" to wake up.

I was using a 12oz Heini can. I also didn't have a proper stand and was using the heavy cast ones from my kitchen stove, and no windscreen. I sure these two factors increased the time to boil by some amount. I also want to try some insulation to act as a wicking material.

Clear as mud? I'll try to take some pics tonight.

Use the preceding instructions at your own risk. Using denatured alcohol is extremely flamable and cause serious injury.

Last edited by CajunHiker on Mon Dec 10, 2007 5:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I've had a stove or two that needed a kick or two to wake em up. Some stoves just don't do what we want them to.

As long as you are using a potstand separate from the burner you may consider forgoing the "Jets". Take out the inner cap that creates the jets and replace with cotton for now until test are complete. The cotton willnot burn untill it starts to run out of fuel. Just for experimenting use cotton balls to act as temporary wicks. If you do it this way you won't need to prime it.